Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age
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In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire.They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions—the jewel in the crown of Britain’s overseas empire for 200 years.Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British—including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two.Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India’s liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civil rights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world.Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear. The Barnes & Noble Review Look beyond the hyperbolic subtitle and the breathlessly apocalyptic flourishes with which this big book begins and ends -- Arthur Herman would have made a great writer of advertisements for Hollywood epics of the Cecil B. DeMille variety -- and you will find a superb double biography of two major 20th-century figures, which is also therefore a superb history of the world their influence shaped.
1 The Churchills and the Raj 152 Lord Randolph Takes Charge 353 Illusions of Power: The Gandhis, India, and British Rule 514 Awakening: Gandhi in London and South Africa, 1888-1895 695 Awakening II: Churchill in India, 1896-1899 916 Men at War, 1899-1900 1117 Converging Paths, 1900-1906 1298 Brief Encounter, 1906-1909 1489 Break Point, 1909-1910 16310 Parting of the Ways, 1911-1914 18111 A Bridgehead Too Far, 1914-1915 19812 Gandhi's War, 1915-1918 21513 Bloodshed, 1919-1920 23914 Noncooperation, 1920-1922 26115 Reversal of Fortunes, 1922-1929 28316 Eve of Battle, 1929 30917 Salt, 1930 33218 Round Tables and Naked Fakirs, 1930-1931 34719 Contra Mundum, 1931-1932 36420 Last Ditch, 1932-1935 38221 Against the Current, 1936-1938 40222 Edge of Darkness, 1938-1939 42723 Collision Course, 1939-1940 44324 From Narvik to Bardoli, April 1940-December 1941 45725 Debacle, 1941-1942 47226 Quit India, 1942 48827 Showdown, 1943 50328 Triumph and Tragedy, 1943-1945 51729 Walk Alone, 1945-1947 54030 Death in the Garden, 1947-1948 56331 Lion in Twilight, 1948-1965 588Conclusion: Triumph and Tragedy 606Significant Dates 611Glossary of Terms 615Acknowledgments 619Notes 623Reference List 673Index 687Photograph credits 719
